(Minghui.org) I’m a 75-year-old true-blue country person. I have cultivated for 27 years in the Fa-rectification period and have come so far with Master’s benevolent protection and Dafa’s guidance. I’d like to share some of my cultivation experiences to report to Master and to share with fellow practitioners.
Obtaining the Fa Happily
More than 30 years ago, my life was unspeakably hard. My father injured his spine in an accident when I was around 30 years old, so he could not do strenuous work. My younger brother was 17 years younger than me, while my younger sister was 20 years younger. Since they were both so young, they needed me to take care of them. I became the breadwinner of our family, but I could only do physical labor to make a living because I had only studied for two years in elementary school.
I was not afraid of hardship or being tired. As long as I could feed our family, I would do all kinds of tough or dirty jobs. Years of overwork and the heavy mental burden made me increasingly irritable, and illnesses inevitably followed. I was long plagued by gastrointestinal issues and gallstones, and my health steadily deteriorated. At times, I wondered when this miserable life would come to an end. I truly felt like giving up on life altogether.
In August 1998, a neighbor told me the blissful news about Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa. Every sentence that she said moved my heart and awakened me. I accepted a copy of Zhuan Falun without a doubt and started reading it eagerly. As I had not received much education, it took me a whole week to finish reading the book. It felt very good so I continued reading it a second time.
Without realizing it, the bloating and stomachaches cleared up, and my appetite returned. My back pain from the gallstones also vanished. It was truly amazing.
A practitioner later told me that benevolent Master had taken away the root cause of all my illnesses. I told my wife happily, “I am saved! I am saved!” My wife was also very happy. She smiled and said to me, “Cultivate well, I fully support you!”
“Dafa Practitioner” Becomes the Branding for My Contracting Projects
I am a mason who learned the trade through a formal apprenticeship. People in the surrounding villages know me for my skilled craftsmanship, integrity, and reliability. I am honest and charge fair prices, and this has earned me the trust and recognition of the locals.
The contracts that I take on for building houses in rural areas need a team of people to do the work, and that creates favorable conditions for me to clarify the truth. I treat those who work with me fairly and reasonably, show no favoritism, and certainly never withhold their wages. They all find partnering with me worry-free and know they will not be shortchanged, so they have peace of mind.
Whenever someone faces difficulties, I do my utmost to help them so that they can focus on their work without any anxiety. This approach ensures the project’s steady progress and that the workforce is stable. At the same time, I also earn their trust.
As such, when I tell them about Dafa and the persecution, and persuade them to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations, they believe and are willing to follow my advice. To help people remember “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good,” I made some small cards with the phrases written on them to give to people. I tell people to recite the phrases frequently to obtain peace, stability, and bliss.
When I clarify the truth to the property owners we are working for and persuade them to quit the CCP, they all readily agree as well. One of them said, “I employed you to build the house because you are a Dafa practitioner. Dafa practitioners are reliable and you can depend on them to get things done.” “Dafa practitioner” has thus become the branding for my contracting projects.
Master Protects Me
In 2022, there was a large tree stump on the hillside behind my house, and I thought of digging it up and taking it home. After hacking through the roots one by one, I gave the stump a mighty tug with both hands. As the slope was steep and I used excessive force, I tumbled down the hillside, which was more than 20 feet high, together with the stump, and lost consciousness.
Fortunately, my wife was there. Seeing me covered in mud and blood, she was terrified and was at a complete loss for what to do. She then remembered Master, so she started shouting loudly, “Master, please save your disciple!” She kept shouting and asking Master for help. After she cried and shouted for just a few minutes, I opened my eyes and felt the world spinning. My whole body ached badly and I could only ask Master to save me quietly in my heart.
My younger daughter heard the commotion and rushed over. Without giving us a chance to explain, she took me to the nearest town hospital, where I was diagnosed with three broken ribs and was told I needed to be hospitalized. My son also rushed back from out of town to visit me. I told him that I wanted to go home and did not want to be hospitalized. My son knew that I am a practitioner and also knew my temperament, so he had no choice but to take me home after buying some medicine.
I lay in bed and thought about the incident. Why did such a tribulation happen? Nothing is coincidental for a cultivator, so there must be some attachments I had not let go of and the old forces took advantage of them to persecute me. I looked within and was shocked.
For example, I worried too much when it came to my children’s matters. My daughter’s business made a loss, and I worried for her. When my children’s marriages were not harmonious, I became anxious. When my son talked to me on the phone with an unpleasant tone, it irritated me. When my children did not call or return home for prolonged periods of time, I would worry too.
With so many attachments and emotions filling my mind, how could I concentrate when I was studying the Fa? The old forces thus made use of these shortcomings to persecute me. I strove to try my best to get rid of these attachments and emotions thoroughly. At the same time, I also needed to totally reject all of the old forces’ arrangements because I only wanted to follow Master’s arrangements.
Through looking within, I strengthened my Fa study and sending of righteous thoughts to get rid of all of the interference and to remain steadfast in my belief in Master and Dafa. In less than half a month, I was able to get out of bed to do the exercises.
As the saying goes, “It takes 100 days to recover from a serious bone or tendon injury.” I recovered so swiftly that the relatives and friends who came to visit me all said it was miraculous. I told them, “Master’s benevolence and Dafa’s mighty virtue protected me.”
Letting Go of My Attachment to Profit
In 2022, I partnered with contractor Xiong to undertake part of the construction work for two villas. The agreement at the time was to split the net profit equally. Upon completion, we settled the accounts, and the net profit came to more than 300,000 yuan [$44,157], so I should have received around 150,000 yuan. Since it was the end of the year and I had to return home for personal reasons, he gave me 40,000 yuan and promised to pay me the remaining 110,000 after he returned home.
He vanished without a trace after the Lunar New Year, as if he had evaporated into thin air. I was unable to contact him for months. I felt that I had been swindled. Left with no choice, I tried to communicate with him through another contractor and a village official, but he ended up paying me only 15,000 yuan. To this day, he still owes me almost 100,000 yuan and has never offered a reasonable explanation.
I figured there was no hope of ever seeing that money, though I struggled to accept it at the time. For someone from a village, over 100,000 yuan ($14,700) is no small sum, especially since I had earned it through the sweat of my own labor. Was I simply supposed to let it go just because he refused to pay?
Through studying the Fa, I understood, “Everything has a cause and effect. I may have owed him from a past life. In that case, what reason do I have to let this weigh so heavily on me?”
Master has said clearly,
“...as a cultivator should follow the course of nature. If something is yours, you will not lose it.” (Lecture Seven, Zhuan Falun)
In that case, what was I still vying for? If he had forcefully taken away the portion that I was supposed to obtain, he must have given me a lot of virtue to compensate me! This is the universal law, and nobody can escape it. I totally let go of it and no longer thought about this matter.
Two years later, I met this contractor, Xiong, at a friend’s house. He was embarrassed when he saw me, but I just smiled calmly at him and shook his hand, “Hi! I wish you peace.” Yet, I could sense his hand trembling slightly. Perhaps he was feeling the pangs of a guilty conscience.
For me, it was as if that incident involving the money had never happened, as if it had long been erased from my memory. I actually felt sorry for him. The matter had left a lingering shadow that had taken hold in his mind. After committing such a grievous wrong, how could he possibly sleep soundly?
The above are some short stories from my cultivation experience. Kindly correct me if there is any room for improvement.
Category: Improving Oneself
